Sophisticated investors come across hundreds of doe-eyed dreamers every year, and, per brutal statistics, most of them are destined to fail. Yet, many of these dreamers behave as if it is their God-given right to be taken on faith.

One casual acquaintance habitually laments, voicing great frustration, that prospective investors just “don’t get” his business. (Years later, without much progress made, I might deduce that he doesn’t really understand his business either.) These arm-wavers and PowerPoint flippers are a dime a dozen; persistently shoving half-baked ideas into venture circles despite any real evidence that their “big idea” extends beyond a mediocre concept sketched on a napkin…

When their vague presentation craters within the first few slides, and the meeting degenerates into a lopsided Q&A (consisting mostly of Q’s without A’s), such entrepreneurs invariably get uncomfortable and annoyed. Rather than acknowledging their own lack of preparation, many of these entrepreneurs will defensively conclude that sophisticated investors are dream-killing assholes. They will then proceed to approach a number of other assholes, with the same sloppy pitch, and get essentially the same result.

Here’s the thing – it is not an investor’s job to believe you. In fact, healthy skepticism is the only thing standing between you, them, and some shared version of failure. It is your job to convince them, using facts and data, versus expecting them to choke down platitudes and jargon. If you go into pitches ill-prepared, you are not doing your job; and any investor relying on faith would not be doing theirs.